I was on vacation the week of Fourth of July. The plan was golf all 10 days in the morning and staycation at home in the pool in the afternoon. After 6 straight days of Golf I decided to take Sharon to Austin for the three B’s. Bats, BBQ, and Blues.
We left Friday morning at 6:00 AM to get to Franklin’s BBQ before they opened 11:00. We got there 9:50 AM. The line started forming at 5:30 AM, and 4 people in front of us was a guy holding the “Last Man Standing” sign. He was the last person to be guaranteed Brisket. Pretty soon a worker came out and told us the same things and that from our place in line would be 4 to 5 hour wait and may not get any Brisket. We left and went to Black’s BBQ down in Lockhart. I had the brisket and turkey and was not impressed with their meats, but they had GREAT sides. Hutchins BBQ in McKinney is better.
Sharon isn’t a big meat eater so I treated her to her favorite Italian. We ate at Botticelli’s South Congress. Then we went to the Continental Club for some live Texas Blues.
I really enjoyed Sam the Soulman. Here is a little IPhone video.
Then walked about a mile down to Congress Street Bridge to watch over 3 million bats take flight to go eat over 10,000 lbs of insects every night. The Bats are Mexican free-tailed. Really special to see. They started flying at 8:42 right at dusk and not idea for photography.
The Bats viewing would be way better from the water on one of the tour boats. The iPhone video actually did a pretty good job capturing the feeling of the bats.
Saturday lunch we headed to The Salt Lick another famous BBQ joint. Their meats were better than Black’s but their sides were not good at all. The highlight of the meal was their homemade bread and the cobbler and ice cream for dessert. Still NOT Hutchins BBQ.
Spend the afternoon hanging out with Jen, Jared, and Eden our old neighbors from Bloomington. Then headed to the find the bats of Round Rock. You could get much closer and they few with a fair amount of good light left. around 8:25.
Stopped by Antone’s Austin famous Blues club on the way back to the hotel but didn’t stay long.
Sunday morning we hit the famous VooDoo Doughnuts on the way out of town! Way better than either BBQ joint.
I still plan on trying Franklins one more time. Maybe Aaron Franklin will invite me to do a food blog on him. Only one person every was allowed to cut in line and that was President Obama. He bought and paid for everybodies food that was in line. I am guessing our tax dollars paid but that is a different post.
Austin is a weird city and we will be back. We packed a lot in during our 2 and half days.
Not my normal blog post full of wildlife and nature but it was what flew in front of my lens while on vacation.
Life is good and I am blessed.
Kent
There was at least 4 or 5 active owls while I was there. I was a little surprised as it was 117 degrees while I was there. I took my Cannon 5D MK III and my 100-400mm MKII. As soon as the Owls started flying around I really wished I would have brought my trusty 1DX, but I made do with what I had.
Was finally able to catch one in flight, the Batman pose no less.
I don’t like man made objects in my nature and wildlife photos but I wanted to post a few of the habitat that built for the owls.
The course was pretty good shape considering it had gotten between 8 to 10 Inches of rain the week before. Some of the par three photos:
The Signature Waterwheel hole
The elevated tee boxes for the 18th.
Some action shots from the first tee.
Both parents were also very active.
Bonus pair of Wood Ducks in some backwater.